Sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of catecholamines in rat brain using a laser...

A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of catecholamines in rat brains has been developed using a fluorescence detector equipped with a continuous wave laser as an excitation light source. A new pre-purification and derivatization method was established and confirmed to be useful for the determination of catecholamines in biological samples. This pre-treatment method was simple, reproducible and specific. About 1 mg of the rat brain tissue was enough to determine catecholamines levels. The levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in rat brain were 0.40 and 0.87 ng, respectively, which agree with the findings of other workers.